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NEW YORK - Headed to the blaze where they died five years ago Saturday, Firefighter John Bellew drove and Lt. Curtis Meyran sat beside him. After a dedication Saturday to mark the anniversary of the day they died, known as Black Sunday, Ladder 27 now bears their names just as they sat that day -- Bellew's name on the left windshield, ...

SACRAMENTO — Fifty-three days after being pulled from a burning home, Modesto fire engineer James Adams walked triumphantly Tuesday through the doors of the University of California Medical Center. He raised his bandaged hands and smiled broadly while greeting many of the 80 or so who came to welcome him back to the outside world. Adams' life was in peril just ...

[gate] ATLANTIC CITY — Next year, the city’s skyline will grow taller with the completion of Revel’s 710-foot casino — 200 feet higher than Harrah’s, which is now the city’s tallest building. Only the 781-foot Goldman Sachs Building in Jersey City will be taller in the state. The towering plans raise the question: Can the city’s fire department handle a blaze ...

QUEENS, NY - Queens firefighter Robert Moore is only on the job two years, and he has already made a lifesaving rescue. And he did it alone, while off duty. Moore, 26, grabbed a 15-year-old boy and the teen's Lhasa apso dog from their smoke-engulfed home, getting them out a second-floor window as he perched on the top of a ladder. ...

SAN PABLO -- The widow of one of two Contra Costa County firefighters who died in a 2007 house fire will receive $4.6 million to settle her wrongful-death lawsuit against two security companies she blamed for mishandling the initial report of the blaze. The fire at 149 Michele Drive in San Pablo killed fire Engineer Scott Desmond, 37, of Brentwood and ...

ST. LOUIS — Ernest Strong hobbled through the courtroom's swinging gate Friday morning and stopped next to the man who shot him seven times. The two did not look at each other. "This young man has completely turned my life upside down," Strong told the judge who was about to sentence Terrence Hendricks. "I ask that you give him as much ...

BRAZIL - Like a special effect from a Harry Potter film, a tornado of fire rises from the ground as if enchanted. This rare phenomenon then swept through burning fields and stopped traffic in Brazil as bush fires spread across the country. The whirlwind of flame, several metres high, was caught on camera in Aracatuba, in southern Sao Paulo state. It ...

CAMBRIDGE - A 2-year-old springer spaniel is back with her owner today after falling into the icy Charles River and swimming in circles until she was rescued by Cambridge firefighters using a surfboard. Firefighters were dispatched to the area near Magazine Beach around 1:30 p.m. Monday, where the dog, Maggie, had left her owner’s side to chase geese, said the department’s ...

MISSOULA, Mont. — A Missoula firefighter has won a stairclimbing competition in Seattle for the third straight year. The Missoulian reports Missoula Rural Fire's Kory Burgess won the Scott Firefighter Stairclimb Sunday by running up 69 flights of stairs in 10 minutes, 53.78 seconds, breaking the record he set two years ago. About 1,500 firefighters competed in the event, in which ...

A few years ago, Brian Jones applied to become a Shreveport firefighter. He didn't make the cut, so he submitted his application to Bossier City Fire Department and was hired. The 25-year-old worked two years for Bossier City before being laid off in December due to budget cuts. On Tuesday, Jones returned to Shreveport Fire Department as a member of its ...

PORTSMOUTH - A retired firefighter has won a $200,000 lottery prize. Raynor Britt won the Powerball prize with a ticket he purchased for the Aug. 21 drawing, according to a news release from the Virginia Lottery. Britt matched the first five numbers using the birth dates of his four grandchildren, the release says. The winning numbers were 7, 10, 12, 22 ...

PUYALLUP, Wash. -- A fire official says an off-duty firefighter pulled over Tuesday when he spotted a Puyallup house fire and rescued the wheelchair-bound woman inside. Central Pierce Fire Assistant Chief Randy Stephens tells The News Tribune that the unidentified woman suffered minor smoke inhalation but was otherwise unhurt. Stephens says the Graham, Wash., firefighter was driving by after picking his ...

WORCESTER — District Chief Geoffrey Gardell gets a little laugh when the Fire Department’s morning roll call is broadcast. His name is announced, then his brother’s — Capt. Timothy Gardell, who is an acting district chief. “I giggle every time I hear it,” Geoffrey said recently, standing outside the Franklin Street Fire Station. For the Gardell brothers, their lives are a ...

MODESTO - After 24 years of fighting fires, Jim Adams had become an expert with the hook. So on New Year's night, with fire raging in the garage of a home on Modesto's Coston Avenue, the 46-year-old Modesto fire engineer climbed onto the roof and began prodding away. He used the rakelike tool to confirm structural stability, looking for the best ...

EMMITSBURG, MD - A firefighter declared "Mayday" and was rescued by fire personnel who were with him at the scene of a fire in Emmitsburg this afternoon, said Wayne Powell, a retired public information officer for Vigilant Hose Company. "When a firefighter gets in trouble, gets trapped, can't find their way out, they declare 'Mayday,' Powell said. In this case the ...

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, VA - When Prince George's County firefighters first came on the scene of a gas-leak-turned-explosion at the Penn Mar Shopping Center in May, they had all the right policies and procedures on the books to tell them how to respond. Problem was, not enough of them knew those policies and procedures existed, according to a federal safety report ...

GRAND ISLAND, NE - With almost 30 classes packed into just three days during the 73rd annual Nebraska State Fire School in Grand Island, there simply wasn't time for every volunteer firefighter to take every course that was offered. That's why volunteer firefighters Aaron Pokorny of Madison and Chad Winkelbauer and Paul Leiting, both of Randolph, gathered at 4 p.m. Saturday ...

WOODWARD, Okla. (AP) - In a scene straight from the movie "A Christmas Story," an 8-year-old Oklahoma boy got his tongue stuck to a metal pole after he licked it on a dare. Officials say when rescue crews arrived Tuesday morning, the boy was standing on his tiptoes, trying to wriggle his frozen tongue free from a stop sign pole across ...

BOTHELL, WA - The application states it is a form for nominations to Bothell’s local register of historic landmarks. In this case, what is being nominated probably isn’t normally thought of as a landmark. Still, if you’ve lived in the Bothell area for any period of time, you’ve most likely seen it on holidays, in parades or at other municipal events. ...